New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-11-02
a POWDER M E HERO.
How a Soldier Risked His life in
Rellglttng the Fuse On the Very
Edge OF the Mine at Petersburg.

u
Sometimes bravery is an impulse;
sometimes it develops slowly and at
last arcrisis brings out the mettle and
proves it heroic. The hero Of the
mine at the Petersburg siege was a
simple hearted man, too modest to
,teek bhe post OF honor and danger,
but in the course OF his simple duties
he walked cody into the jaws OF
death.
When the civil war alarm burst up
on the country, in 1861, the miners
sof the upper schuylkill region, in the
mountains Of Pennsylvania, made:up q
regiment, the Forty eighth Pennsyl-
'vania Reserve. In the ranks Of Com
pany K was Harry REESE, a young
man without pretensions but filled
with that quiet ardor that does not
flash and fade. The Forty eighth
served in the early battle Of Virginia
and in the Southwest, in Mississippi
and Tennessee, and when the siege Of
Petersburg began, in June, 1864, the
ranks OIL thousand stalWart miners
had been thinned out by bullets and
the hardships OF camp and march to
q couple OF hundred, and these,
though bronzed and soldierly looking,
were not the men Of 1861, fer fever
and privation make waste with the
strongest bodies.
Reese was yet but a common sol
.dier, although he had won the chev.
rons Of a sergeant, one rank below an
office. When Grant brought the army
to the trenches before Petersburg that
summer the ten little bands Of the
Forty eighth, numbering about TWEEN
ty men each, were placed in the front
line, opposite the most important
fort the Confederates had for the pro-
lection Of the city. Ii had cost our
army fifteen thousand men to get up
near that fort, and if it could be de-
stroyed it was believed that we could
march into Petersburg. We had
spent ten days trying to carry the
position by regular assault, and at the
rate we we're losing men we could
Ghrow them all away and make no
progress. These miners were SO far
front that they could hear. the enemy
talk in their works, and one day,-or
might, rather. q sort Of neighborly
council was held in the camp OF the
Forty-eighth, and some one proposed
to destroy the stubborn stronghold
that blocked the way by digging tun-
mel from their works to a point right
nnder the fort and exploding pow
sder magazine there that would tear
.all above it to ruins. 1t all was
tbluster to begin with, but Sergeant
Reese caupht up the idea earnestly.
He fixed upon a plan and laid it be-
fore his superiors, promising that the
actual LABOR OF the mine should be
performed at all hazard. Finally he
enlisted the colonel OF the regiment,
and that officer, being an engineer,
approved the scheme and had suffi-
scient influence to get permission from
headquarters to begin the tunnel
But it was permission only. The
higher powers did not furnish nipple
ments nor extend any encouragement.
Reese and about a score of his fellows
took some common camp tools, with
empty cracker boxes for barrows,
.and dug the earth in small quantities
and at night carried 1T away out OF
sight Of the, enemy. AS the tunnel
grew in length the work became more
edifficult. There was greater bulk of
earth to conceal, and the shaft was
dark and close. It would not do to
open an air shaft to the surface above
them, because the Confedrstes who
occupied the ground would discover it
land defeat the scheme ae ~
The space between tine Union and
confederate lines under which they
were tunneling was occupied with
asharpshoct and all day and at
might, whenever the air was clear, the
bullets did their deadly work when
ever soldier exposed a target. The
amount OF matter taken out Of the
excavation was $4,000 cnbic feet,
over 500 cubic feet for every rod, and
all of this had TO be concealed as FAST
las it came out by filling it into little
ravines and sunken spots behind the
works. And then the movement had
Ito be held a secret away from all
Union soldiers that were not in the
mining party, because these men were
frequently captured on the outposts
and the enemy could force some
weak prisoner to let out his secret in
NOrmation.
THE fear Of detection from the
ground overhead also compelled the
men to work in the close shaft with
out air from the surface. The small
est aperture could not be made over
anead without danger Of it's beng found
Wy some Confederate scouts or pickets.
All of the fresh air let into the tunnel
scame through wooden tube running
!f,,o n, the mouth OF the shaft and hav-
,ing a PARTITION SO arranged as to carry
"a foul air current away and bring in a
supply Of fresh air, and the circulating
movement was kept up by a fire burn
sed constantly at the mouth OF the
sshaft to get the air in motion. This
tcontrivaance was help, but Tor all
'thatitne miners became faint from the
fatigue and foul air, and the hard work
disabled them in about two hours,
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